Friday, December 22, 2006

Friday 12/22 A.M. Quickie:Ho, Ho, Ho. Happy Holidays!

If I deliver no other opinion or message today, it's this: I wish you and your families all the happiest of holidays, no matter how you will be celebrating. I squeaked out of Chicago last night to get back to New York – wow, was the airline system screwed yesterday.

Was it Brett Favre's final game at Lambeau? Real Packer fans – and everyone else – should hope so.

Packers 9, Vikings 7: My friends, we may just have had the least entertaining NFL game of the year. Good thing most people weren't able to watch. Or didn't want to watch.

More NFL: Art Shell out in Oakland? Reports are that he's gone after the season, though the team denies it. But why wouldn't they fire him? He's been awful. The team is atrocious. The performances are worse. I'm surprised he hasn't been fired YET.

College Hoops: Duke beats Gonzaga. I really thought that the Zags would win this game, given their talent and brutal non-conference schedule. Aw, crap: Now I have to give Duke credit and size them up as a Top 5 team.

CBB Parity Watch: No. 15 OklahomaState beat No. 7 Pitt in double-OT, behind a career-high 30 from Mario Boggan. Right now, Boggan has got to be one of the Top 5 big men in college hoops. Off the top of my head: Oden, Horford/Noah, Hansbrough, McRoberts, Boggan?

Speaking of Oden and Horford/Noah, I'm already too ready for tomorrow's BCS title-game between OhioState and defending champ Florida in Gainesville. Horford won't be playing, denying fans the best matchup of big men of the college season. Oden-Noah just isn't the same, though it will still be a battle between two Top 5 NBA picks. Oh, and I'm predicting that OhioState will win the game, prompting speculation of Ohio State Final Four certainty, not to mention arguments of whether this is the best group of freshmen since the Fab Five (they are). Of course, a loss at home on Saturday night will only make the Gators' football win over the Buckeyes in Glendale so much sweeter.

NBA: You say "tip-in"; I say "tap-in." I guess I didn't make enough of a big deal about David Lee's tip-in with a tenth of a second left to lead the Knicks over the Bobcats. I watched the replay a lot yesterday, and I'm quite sure that even a tip-in can't be completed in a tenth of a second. Two-tenths? Maybe. I think there's a difference between a tip-in and a TAP-in. What Lee did was a TIP-in, and though the NBA was ready to credit him, I disagree. But, nonetheless, it was one hell of a play.

Pistons smack Cavs: I got back from my trip just in time to see the Cavs getting absolutely smoked by the Pistons. Anyone who picked the Cavs to have that breakthrough year where they win the East (or even make the East finals) was smoking crack. I believe I had them picked at the bottom of the East playoff ladder.

Here's the bigger point: The more LeBron realizes that he doesn't have championship pieces around him, the more likely he'll be to bolt when his contract gives him the option.

AI to debut tonight? A night I wish I had NBALeaguePass (or might have to sneak away late to a sports bar): Allen Iverson's debut for the Nuggets. Are those jerseys on sale yet? Around Denver and the country, thousands of kids (and maybe a few adults) update their holiday wish lists.

MLB Hot Stove: Ah, D-Train... what did you do? Dontrelle Willis, who I argued in 2005 was the REAL "Face of Baseball" (not, as argued by others, Derek Jeter), was arrested for DUI. Come on, man...

Ripken as unanimous HOF pick? Hal Bodley has an interesting column in today's USA Today about how Cal Ripken should be a unanimous pick for the Hall of Fame, which would be a first. I've said this before:

Any voter who thinks Ripken is Hall-worthy (and who wouldn't?) but won't vote for him out of some ridiculous sense that no one should be unanimous should be permanently banned from Hall of Fame voting. Without overstatement, that is the equivalent of an athlete throwing a championship game.

BYU shellacks Oregon in Las Vegas Bowl: I completely effed up my College Bowl Pick 'Em strategy. I'm now 2-0 and I was MUCH surer of these first two games than the later, higher-profile ones, which I hubristically put all my "confidence" points on. Have to say: This BYU team was good enough to play in the BCS. If there was a 16-team playoff, they would have potentially made some noise as a double-digit seed. (There's still time to enter the College Bowl Pick 'Em! Go to ESPN.com's game and sign up under group name "Daily Quickie Readers.")

Pittsburgh Penguins to relocate: I'm going to throw out my standard concept – Las Vegas. Turn the team into a nightly tourist attraction, with no real local fan base but a rotating group of whoever happens to be in town looking for a fun way to spend a night out. The Pens will be the Celine Dion of hockey teams. And it would work.

More coming later, though I'm sure many of you are taking off early today and won't be checking the blog. I'll be posting and updating through the weekend and holiday, so feel free to check back. Otherwise, happy holidays!

Dan, you still don't seem to understand the confidence point system. If you ranked a game "1," that doesn't mean that it's your most-confident game. It means you can win 1 point if you're right. Go check your points total - you're waaaaay up high on the leaderboard because you had 32 next to the first game and 28 next to the second. (I had 32 and 12, hence my middle-of-the-pack status).

As for unanamious HoF vote for Cal, No he is not derserving of being the first. Yes, His record of consecutive games played is great but he does not rise to the level of a player that will be remember as the greatest ever in there sport and only a player of that caliber should be the first player to get that honor. If anyone is going to be the first it is and should be Roger Clemens.

See...I went balls deep and put 32 points on Ohio State winning and 31 points on LSU winning. My reasoning is that I will be in the running toward the end and then I will be able to win because I saved the big points for last. That and I was an idiot and only put 5 points on the BYU/Oregon game.

Thank you Oklahoma State-Pitt. That game was much more exciting and enjoyable to watch than the borefest on NFL Network. (How on Earth is Bubba Franks still in the NFL? Those are the worst hands I've ever seen.)

The Ohio State-Florida match up would be much better if Horford and Oden weren't hurt and if Brewer was just coming back from mono. Maybe we'll get to see both teams at full strength come March....but I really doubt Florida is going to make it that far.

No disrespect to Ripken, but I don't think he should be the first ever unanimous Hall of Famer. If he does get in unanimously though the voters need to continue on with this trend. It would be ridiculous to see Ripken get in with 100% and then in a few years see a few people not vote for Clemens, Henderson and others who were better players than Cal.

All that matters is you get all 32 games right, and then you'll scoop up all the points anyways. I'm 2 for 2, but have a total of 3 points, mostly because I didn't feel like rearranging the ENTIRE list of numbers.

Not everyone thinks a .280 hitter with so-so range as a shortstop deserves an automatic spot in the hall of fame. Yeah he'll go, and he SHOULD go, but he certainly shouldn't even get more votes than Tony Gwynn.

Gumbel (note the spelling) and Favre were actually both fine last night. I would rather curse out Bubba Franks, who's trying to cost me big bucks in my spread pool.

I think it'd be funny if college teams tanked in order to get the first pick of high school seniors. Oh wait....

Just a quick comment:Dan, if you're going to pick 5 people as t he top 5 big men in college hoops, only pick 5 people. You can only have Horford or Noah. If you have both, it's a top 6 big men.

The game was horrible. I've never seen such bad offenses.

Cal is a unanamious pick. He was always a top level player, if not the top shortstop of his time, and he has the unbreakable consecutive games record. Clemens? Clemens isn't getting in anytime soon because the guy can't figure out if he wants to retire or not. Because he keeps retiring and unretiring, he doesn't deserve to be a unanamious pick.

Florida will beat OSU in basketball tonight, and lose in the BCS Championship game. That's just how it is.

BYU was an easy pick. Beck is a Top 3 QB in college football right now.

As a Christian, I say Merry Christmas everyone. For those that aren't Christians, I say Happy Holidays/Happy Hanukah/whatever. Have a safe weekend and enjoy your time with your family!

Yeah, Dan, you unwittingly did not F up your points. Or you did F up, but it helped you. I, on the other hand, did the opposite (I should be at 36, but instead am at 27); I was going to let it ride, but changed my mind this morning when I rechecked my picks. No way I'm banking 32 on a potential Troy upset and putting 1 on a sure-fire (imo) OU win over BSU. Luckily, you can still change the confidence in games which have yet to be played.

As for that Lee tip, I figured you hadn't watched the game; like with most NBA games, I let it fizzle as background noise for most of the game, and got into it in the 4th quarter. For two sorry ass teams, they played a damn exciting game. By the end of the 1st OT I was ready for the game to just be over already, but stayed uo watch Charlotte screw up at the end of the 2nd OT with a shotless turnover possession (why do teams wait for 5 seconds to start a play in that scenario? It always seems to leave to desparation if a team defenses your first option.). The Knicks announcers were ready for triple OT, and I was dreading it; Marbury was screaming at Lee in the huddle; the play was pretty obvious to those watching it on TV; and damn, it was a sweet play (has that play ever worked before? I've never seen the <0.3 second end of game buzzer beater before). But it certainly was longer than 0.1 seconds on his hand. The refs at first acted like they might call it back, but then decided they would rather just go to bed.

How can you bash Clemens for not retiring? The guy is still dominant. He's arguably the best pitcher ever and definitely top 5 in everyone's all time rankings. If anyone in the modern era ever deserved to be sent in unanimously it is him, not Cal. Cal was a good player who played in a bunch of games in a row. That's not deserving of being the first unanimous entry. Sorry Ripken fans.

I'm not bashing Clemens for not retiring. I'm "bashing" him because he can't seem to make up his mind. If he would just retire and say that's it, I'd be happy. If he would just sign a contract and play, I'd be happy. All this waiting til 2 months into the season to join the team and retire/unretire stuff is just getting old. Is he a top 5 pitcher of all time? Yeah. Is he the best? Probably not. And you also forget, the HOF is also about character. Clemens throwing half a bat at Piazza a few years back says a lot about the guys character. Ripken is a great ball player, and a greater man. Unanimous pick in my opinion.

THE GUY PLAYED 2,632!!!! The HOF isn't strictly about statistics. It's about helping your team. The Orioles knew who their shortstop was for 2,632 consecutive games. They didn't have to worry about injuries and crap like that. Give the man some credit. He earned it.

But see here's the thing. If he's a surefire HOFer, then a voter should vote for him. If that makes him a unanimous pick, so be it. If Clemens is a surefire HOFer, then a voter should vote for him. If that makes him a unanimous pick, so be it. If a player is deserving of the HOF, and he is unanimously picked, what the heck are we bitching about???

I was just saying that if you removed the streak and just look at the stats he would not be a surefire Hall of Famer. That being said you may have some voters who fell that way and if they do not vote for him that should be blamed or stripped of there vote.

I don't know if playing all those games in a row actually helped his team. He probably would have been a lot better sitting out a game or two especially when he was getting older.

If the voters aren't going to put other better and more deserving players in unanimously, there's no argument that would make sense to me that says Ripken should be the first and only one. He wasn't that good, not even a top 25 player that has ever played the game.

Good point rafael. Duke's not a top 5 team just because they beat Gonzaga. So many other teams that deserve the recognition right now because unlike Duke they've beaten some legit teams. Top 5 based on this year's results are probably UCLA, UNC, OSU, Wichita St and Wisconsin.

Thanks for the BYU love, Shanoff. I'm not sure if my Cougars were BCS-worthy, but I do know that we were a disallowed touchdown (Arizona)and a poor overtime (Boston College) away from an undefeated season.

And may I say, it was particularly sweet to see former BYU head coach Gary Crowton lose the game for Oregon by calling too many passes and switching quarterbacks every two plays.

If anything, the BBWAA or whatever they're called have created a stupid precedent that should just end, whether it's with Ripken, or Gwynn, or even Pujols in 2025.

It is the stupidest--repeat: stupidest--line of reasoning that you should keep doing something because it has always been done that way.* Actually, there's something stupider, and that is to artificially lie or cheat in order to keep things that way. I am saying this on the premise that Ripken is actually a consensus HOF pick, though, which isn't necessarily true.

It would be better if we were talking about somebody even better than he, but whatever. Is there any question that he is a baseball legend, and for good reasons? OK, then vote him in. Otherwise, Baltimore may secede.____

*There is an experiment where they put food up on a pole in a cage with a group of monkeys. Every time one climbs up, a bell clangs, scaring it away. Once this behavior is indoctrinated in the group, they take away the bell. Still, the monkeys won't let anyone go near the pole. Then, one by one, monkeys are replaced by other monkeys until none remain which even saw the bell. Yet still, the group will keep others from climbing the pole, despite not knowing why they are doing this (and having no reason to do it, since the bell is long gone). Anyhoo, my long-winded point is, none of the writers in the BBWAA could tell you why they can't vote someone in unanimously, so they are no smarter than monkeys.

Happy Holidays,Love the Las Vegas Penguins, aside from the obvious irony of the name(and please don't change it) They would not only be the Celine Dion of hockey, they could have her sing both National Anthems, Hoooray Convienence!!! and yes I know I stole that from Red Stripe.

The only problem with comparing Rice (who I believe should be in the HoF) and Ripken is the position they each played. Comparing offensive stats between a RF and SS is not a good comparison.

Most statistical analyis by people like Bill James has Ripken in the top handful of all-time SS. When you factor in defense (Ripken deserved more Gold gloves), character and the streak he is one of the all time greats.

There should have been players prior to Ripken elected unanimously and there are future ones who should as well, but it should start with Cal.

I'm not so sure Shell will be sent packing. Do I THINK he should? Yes. Heck, he should have never been hired in the first place. He is horrible, and shows absolutely no emotion on the sideline whatsoever. Heck, he looks like he's about to fall asleep! But Al Davis said he regretted firing him the first time around. I don't see him firing Shell so quickly this year. Perhaps next year if they repeat this year's performance.

As for others... Gibbs may be on the way out. It was a nice story when he came back to the NFL, but he just flat hasn't gotten it done overall. I don't think it's necessarily him, as in his coaching methods and such. I think it's more of not having the right personnel there and bad decisions in drafting/FAs.

Denny Green has a good chance of being let go. Which is a shame, because to me, he seems like a very likeable coach. But again, he just hasn't gotten it done in AZ.

That's all I can think of right now.. but i'm sure there is at least one or two more this offseason that will be let go...

ps.... BC will beat kansas tommorrow in a good one before osu vs florida

Dan, thoughts on the planned walk-out at the Lions' game this weekend? Futile? Too little too late (after all, wouldn't it be better if no one showed in the first place?)? What can the fans reasonably hope to accomplish?

NBA thought: THe more I watch Lebron James play the more I think he will be the Peyton Manning of the NBA. Sick stats, team is better than most, but can't win the big games. Lebron is just too nice. The Detriot game was the perfect example of that, his stats 26-10-5 were good, but they still lost by 16! Why hasn't anyone mentioned this before??

sheldiz - today's Page 2 and her ... whatever you can call it ... directed at Michelle Wie, on entering college.

I guess not everybody reacts to things the same way, but I seem to recall somebody making fun of Jim Caple for trying to relive college for espn.com, and as a 5-day-old alum, I find myself more annoyed by Jemele's "have fun in college, heehee!" shit than Mr. Caple's "I'm old and I get to hang out at colleges and get paid" shit. Not that he's great or anything, I just think this recent product of Jemele's wacky mind is worthy of loathing.

I mean, it's like, great job - we either went to college and could have made the same lame jokes in our sleep, especially since you're writing for Disney and thus supertame, or we don't care to begin with. What are you trying to prove? We know you fucking went to school somewhere; we are also aware of the last decade's crop of constantly quotable movies; furthermore, we're surprised but not impressed that you got a nosebleed while doing a... beer bong keg stand?

There are only three paragraphs that make that anything like a story that should be on espn.com, even though I love Page 2's bullshit cheesecake drivel (the paragraphs about handlers, rich kids, and celebrity status), and not one is clever or funny.

And, um, this may be... cultural, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about "Friday" or anything like that. The first two readings, I thought she had included the "Friday the 13th trilogy" for some reason and ignored the fact that there are like 90 of them.

I dunno. Maybe it's no worse than 92% of P2, but it just really struck me as one of the lamest, least original, unfunniest pieces I have seen.

Tell me you or I couldn't write a better fucking guide to college for Michelle Wie, in 15 minutes. She gets paid for this? What a crock.

adam-Peyton Yanning of the nba? Did you watch any of the cavs playoff games last year? Do you realize they were an offensive rebound away from beating a team they were given no shot against? Peyton is Peyton b/c he's consistently been to the playoffs and consistently choked. Lebron has been to the playoffs once in his three years in the league and overachieved once he got there. He's the exact opposite of Peyton thus far in his career.

We Packer fans, unfortunately, have to hope that Favre is coming back next year. This year's QB draft class isn't very good (and at 7-9, the Pack aren't getting Brady Quinn, or even Troy Smith), Aaron Rogers hasn't give any indication that he's the future, and it doesn't seem likely that anyone of worth available via trade or free agent (Daman Huard? Matt Shaub? I'd think sticking with Favre is a better idea than either of them, and they're the best -- and both are somewhat implausible -- options out there).

I'll go with John here... Jemele Hill sucks donkey balls. There wasn't a single relevant thing in today's article. I pretty much stopped caring once the "black NBA players get called thugs, but white baseball players are upholding the tradition of the game because America is a racist hellhole" brawl puff piece came out. Actually, I never really started caring, but at least I had an open mind about the woman.

If she's still around for Festivus 2007, I'm going to beat her senseless with the aluminum pole.

*shrug*I like Jemele Hill's work for the most part so far.And if you didn' tlike the 'puff' piece on the brawls, maybe you aren't listening well enough. Baseball brawls ARE considered funny, or extremely pathetic..damn, none of them know how to fight.

Either case, Page 2 isn't meant to be an intellectual well. That went away when Ralph Wiley died.

Good call on Jackson doing better than Favre last night Dan...you're bias is ridiculous...I understand you hate him but I'll take Favre or Tavarius Jackson right now. Jackson will never be any good, Favre still can drive his team down the field when he needs to. That pass is the fourth was pretty damn good.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.